Ozmo samples Wi-Fi PAN chip

LONDON  Ozmo Devices Inc. (Palo Alto, Calif.), a provider of low-power Wi-Fi personal area network (Wi-Fi PAN) chips, has started sampling its second chip, the OZMO2000.

Ozmo is pursuing the use of a low-power, short-range version of Wi-Fi to link peripherals to computers. The OZMO2000 is currently available for use in Wi-Fi mouse, keyboard and remote control designs. The use case is supported by Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.

The OZMO2000 supports data rates of up to 24-Mbits per second and is suitable for use with mouse and keyboard, as well as for touch-screen applications or integrated video and audio, the company said.

Ozmo is providing samples to some customers and volume production is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2010. The OZMO2000 is priced at US$3.00 per chip in 10,000-unit quantities. The company did not indicate how it is selecting which customers to supply with chips and which potential customers to deny access to chips. Also the company has already signed up a couple of customers who have a head start in the market.

The OZMO2000 is compatible with Windows 7 SoftAP as well as Intel’s MyWi-Fi Technology, the company said. Significantly the OZMO2000 is designed to be compatible with the upcoming Wi-Fi Direct standard. The Wi-Fi Alliance plans this new certification program to be available later in the year.

The OZMO2000 is the first chip to take advantage of Windows 7 SoftAP (Software-based Access Point) functionality to attach peripherals to personal computers, Ozmo claimed. SoftAP is built into every version of Windows 7 and allows Wi-Fi devices to connect directly to notebooks without the need for an access point.

The company claimed that the OZMO2000 offers between two and three times the battery life of a peripheral linked by Bluetooth. It also claims a solution based on OZMO2000 is "cost-effective" when compared with Bluetooth or proprietary 2.4-GHz technology.

"Given the nearly 100 percent attach rate of Wi-Fi in notebooks, Ozmo's innovative solution adds new, low-power peripherals to any Windows 7 notebook without increasing the platform cost," said Billy Anders, Group Program Manager, Windows Networking at Microsoft, in a statement issued by Ozmo.

The wireless mouse market is a key target for the OZMO2000 and Primax Electronics, a Taiwan-based mouse manufacturer, is the first ODM to offer their mouse designs with the OZMO2000. In addition, Ozmo has partnered with keyboard manufacturer NMB Technologies Corp.

This is an interesting use of Wi-Fi. I feel a shorter range Wi-Fi would be better off targeting wireless hard disks (remember wireless USB?) and would be on overkill for mouse and keyboard. But they do mention integrated audio and video applications. I would be interested in knowing use cases where high bandwidth is required.
- Bala